A New Direction For Snapchat

January 8, 2015

Snapchat – hailed as a great vehicle for passing around disposable media…that really doesn’t disappear. Recently they’ve expanded into the financial sector, following Facebook into the funds transfer foray. While it seems that they are groping to find a place in the New Economy they might want to try something new.

The nature of their business is tenuous, short and temporal. The appeal is to experience the flow of time and experience, the individual perspective. Recently Snapchat began participating in events and creating a stream of inputs to associate with it. Taking this one step further could help grow their brand loyalty.

This next level would be to ascribe attendance to an event and reward those who contribute. For example, people attending a new Woodstock would get badges associated with their profile and it would impact their standing in the community. Purchasing memorabilia from such events that would be in limited quantities. Momentos would be from select strategic partnerships. This would give the user a takeaway, from a service with nothing.

Gamifying the app would also aid in raising participation. A group scavenger hunt benefiting a charity, for example, has many cross-branding opportunities available. Animations to dance over the picture taken and personalized cached responses would serve to create more user familiarity and control.

There are many areas Snapchat could go in. Personally I hope they avoid ventures such as clothing lines and building their own zoo.